Area students win honors at Winston Churchill Student Speech Competition

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Riley Lawson-3rd from the left, Torri Weidinger 4th from the left

Area students win honors at Winston Churchill Student Speech Competition

Riley Lawson-3rd from the left, Torri Weidinger 4th from the left

FULTON, MO (KTVI) – Two St. Louis area students placed 3rd and 4th in the first annual Winston Churchill Student Speech Competition held at the National Churchill Museum located on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Four middle school students from across the state competed for top honors at the competition. Riley Lawson, a 7th grader from Barnwell Middle School in St. Charles placed 3rd, while Tori Weidinger from the Grand Center Arts Academy of St. Louis place 4th.

The museum is dedicated to the life British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. One of the main attractions is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a 17th century Christopher Wren church that was nearly destroyed in World War II, and was shipped to Missouri stone by stone and fully restored in 1969.

The gymnasium on the campus is where Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech that warned of the shadow of communism falling over post-war Eastern Europe.